dreamrider

Don't try to do everything in the early going with just your char capabilities. - Every character can make and use scrolls - Every char can make and use potions - Shooting and kiting may not feel "macho", but they keep your character alive...and every char can be equipped to shoot. - Find ways (Abilities, Potions, gear, whatever) to be slightly faster than most opponents. If you are slower/even, they will chase and chase and chase, giving you little opportunity to use kiting, shooting, scrolls, potions, choose your own targets, etc, etc, etc. If you are slightly faster, most opponents will reach a territorial limit, and turn away, allowing you to control the pace of the fight, and to kite effectively. - Recon slowly, gently, in stealth mode … every time! - Use doorways, gateways, narrow passages, pinched corners of rock formations, corners of the map, etc to restrict the approaches and frontage of your party, so you are fighting fewer enemies at any instance of combat, and so some of your enemies are stacking up just out of melee range...where they are ripe for AoE damage from scrolls and casters. But you have to recon the area in stealth first to set this up and pick your spot(s). - try to choose final fight postions where even teleporting, jumping, and unengaged 2nd line enemies cannot get behind you. Getting surrounded and immobilized is death. This is the reason why, sometimes, corners are better than doorways, especially vs kith mobs that include rouge-types. - BE PATIENT! REST OFTEN if you don't feel comfortable with the fight mechanics and your powers yet. - Review your powers, over and over again. Then review them again before the next fight. Experiment on lesser fights to learn how to use each one. Then...try to use them ALL, smoothly. (There is a stage beyond that, where you make a conscious decision to not waste action time on certain class powers, except in most special circumstances, but you are a long ways from that yet.)

Chanter would probably also work well, as PC. I would look up suggested chanter tank/off-tank builds in this forum, however. Personally, I love Monk PCs. Sorry I didn't pay proper attention and realize you were looking for PC suggestions. I somehow got the idea that you had your PC picked out.

Pallegina (earliest), Zahua, or Mahena. For Mahena, you need WM2, but that is HIGHLY recommended anyway. Once it is installed, you will find Mahena during WM1 visit to Stalwart. I like backstory on all the Comps. So plan on temp acquiring each of them, though the ones above are the off tank type you probably need. Well, Hiravias could do it if built correctly, or the Devil. But by the time you can aquire the Devil, you will have developed alternate solutions for the Rouge shaped hole in your party. Sagani is probably the least useful, but has an interesting story, and some of the "most supportive", loyal, scripting. Friendliest. I find Kana Rua a bit dull. Chanters can be built reasonably tanky...but I am no good at it. (Small SPOILER Alert, PoE II: DF) For what it is worth, the 3 "Old Companions" that you will (or may) see again if you later delve again into the Watcher's soul and history, are: Eder, "the BFF" (no secret/spoiler there; he's active in the sequel before your PC is.); Aloth, and Pallegina.

Belt of the Royal Deadfire Cannoneer. Check the wiki for it's later powers. It may solve your quandry.

I actually think that "xaurip black market smuggling" idea might work, as a personal RP excuse. Of course, there is (has been) a major deterrent to limit such smuggling … as in, one screwup, one shed scale reserve stock accounting mistake, and Sefyra eats you, and your entire bloodline.

Ah Well. Perhaps in some of the DLC. Or maybe we'll meet her again when we go to delve in The Living Lands. (I've always assumed that, with a name like that, we would HAVE to adventure there in some sequel. Though perhaps as soul-child of Watcher.)

Is Persistance the ONLY item / weapon in the two games that requires TWO Sky Dragon Eyes in order to enchant to Superb? (Not that she doesn't become AWESOME at that level!)

Hey!? How do you enchant Superb armor and shields in PoE II: DF? I haven't gotten there yet.

OK, IC. Barely believable, but good enough for personal RP, I guess. I think you went a little overboard making her royal, however. Minor nobility, of a disfavored ethnic group, ah la Robert of Locksley, or the Reeds of the Neck, would have been sufficient.

Does it occur to anyone else that, somewhere, there must be an archmage with a side business of plating dragon scales in adra,...or transmogrifying them into adra, … or something like that? Because the Adra Dragon is, as near as we can tell, ABSOLUTELY unique. And NOBODY (til now), except some xaurips, ever come back from Seyfra's lair. So, without an alternate suppoly of adra dragon scales, where did all the accumulated Superb gear of Eora come from? Of course, I suppose the xuarip High Priests of the EPON may have been running a little smuggling gig for a few ... centuries. Is there an actual in canon explanation for this?

Does it actually HELP in gameplay in any way? I mean other than the intelligence that she gives on how to find Thaos, which you will find out before the time comes anyway I know from reading that you encounter hints of her, as a freebooter captain, as you knock around the Deadfire in the sequel, but is there any material benefit in either game? BTW, I agree that RP story-wise setting yourself up with a dragon ally is very cool. I've been tempted.

Listen to Kaylon. "Warlock" is a mis-label. He is an Arch-Mage of the forum, he just doesn't post as frequently as some of us blabbers..

@ IC: You played as a priestess of Skaen? Your handle is soo-o-o appropriate. I was tempted, as I have been trying to play a character that slowly evolved from the personal survival goal into keeping the larger picture in mind (thanks to Eder, Lady Webb, and a few others.) So while tempted by the pragmatic but morally ambiguous approach, I fought (and fought and fought) and killed Sefyra. I do try to remember her name, however. (Besides, the Scale Breaker Talent is multiply useful, and I think you get one more Adra Dragon Scale from killing the beast as opposed to cooperating.)

Consensus in forum discussion of WM is that it fits best if you go off and do the WM1 stories when you hit a "reasonable dramatic break" in the original storyline (there can be several) at around character level 7-8. You have to make your own decision when to respond to the message from Stalwart, however. Similarly, consensus seems to be that if you want to do WM2 without scaling up content, you should make an opportunity at around character level 11-12. (Personally, I haven't found it that way. Perfectly satisfied, as in "NOT scared ****less, or constantly reloading", with an L16 party for WM2 content.) I did not go to WM until L16, the circumstance you find yourself in now. It is fine. Back up to a save and do it. You will not feel shortchanged.

1. Re Bull's Will vs Mental Fortress. Will defends against a much broader palette of detrimental effects and spells than Mental Fortress, even though Charmed, Confused, and Dominated may be viewed as generally the "worst". So, if it is a flat choice between Bull's Will & Mental Fortress, take Bull's Will. - caveat: Will per se, after being generally raised by Bull's Will, is subject to being diminished for a time by certain afflictions or spell effects. A direct Defense booster, such as Mental Fortress, or Spellward Amulet, is always undiminished in effect. But still, in the broad scheme of unpredictable events, Bull's Will is probably somewhat superior. - 2nd caveat: Confused, Charmed, Dominated ARE pretty nasty, and essentially game-enders for a solo. Consider taking both Talents, if you have the slots. BTW, I fully built my current PC and Compainion's ((this is my favorite all-time typo; not correcting it!)) before I realized this, and I focused on Mental Fortress as a "must have". I keep telling myself I need to respec. 2. Re Critical Defense. Yes, it effects everything. And that counts as a REALLY GREAT thing! However, I would judge that it is NEVER better than Mental Fortress or Bull's Will against the 3 afflictions you seem particularly concerned about. This is because, if you will note, Critical Defense never causes a MISS. Relative to Confused, Charmed, Dominated, it apparently only diminishes duration, not likelihood of some effect. BTW, there are very few, if any, circumstances where Confused, Charmed, Dominated are defended against by Deflection, unless the affliction is being imposed by the strike of a physical weapon. Even then, there is likely to be a separate Will check for the specific mental effect.

Can't speak directly to the math,... but it would be easy enough to do a basic level test of some elements by creating beginning characters of Mech 3, 4, & 5, then take each one in turn and go strolling through the looters' campsite. See if you find the "Disappointer" without scouting mode.

Found Ryona's Brestplate. Swapped it for Gwist Glas even though it slows the PC down, in order to work on the soulbinding, to see if I want to keep it for end game. Was pretty intimidated by the Eyeless when they broke into the Iron Flail Fort, especially after our marked success negotiating with that angsty Watcher boy, Alaryc. But with Itumaak the super-fox (and a couple summons) running interference, the Crew of Caed Nua shot them to pieces, one at a time. Glad there weren't more...yet. Cleaning up the lesser WM II quests (that Wylla is gonna be a pistol...when she gets her own pistol), while continuing to level an array of soulbound gear spread across the party. I get the feeling that when Eder finishes aligning himself with his new shield, he will be...really tanky. The build is working so well I rarely think about it, although at this stage of the game you do have to be careful to buff up before likely confrontations, especially on Resolve. Mainly for tricky interactions rather than the fights.

Enchanting to Fine level, and lashes, and special enemy focus, uses fairly commonly available ingredients. Enchanting to Exceptional hinges mainly on acquiring vithrack brains, which is a moderately rare thing to acquire yourself, except on a deepish level of The Endless paths, or during a couple of quite tough mid-to-late-game Bounty adventures. Plus, in some encounters you may want to talk rather than try to collect all the available brains. Luckily, a trickle of vithrack brains tends to show up off and on in the restored Curio Shop at Caed Nua, and in the storage chest for estate products in the Treasury off the Main Hall of Caed Nua. Occasionally at other incredients vendors. For something so relatively rare, the price at the Curio Shop and other vendors is not bad. It is worth it to transfer/purchase vithrack brains into your Stash whenever you can. When you have a few, start enchanting, first, all of your own unique gear, then all of your Companions unique gear up to Exceptional. (Only armor, weapons, and shields can be up-enchanted.) The key components to take gear up to Superb are truly rare and hard to come by. You may get one or two of the final components after some of the hardest fights in the game (as in, dragons and archmages). So, once you have one or two of those super special ingedients in your Stash, consider very carefully what items you want to take to the Superb level. Remember, there ARE some late game unique and already Superb items, some of which you may feel compelled to switch up to once you get them. You don't want to find yourself in the position of upgrading your trusty old breastplate to Superb, in the process using up one of your two chances at a Superb enchantment, then two maps later deciding you need to switch to the Superb Full Plate armor you just discovered. If you ever get the chance to enchant anything to the Legendary level, count yourself very, very lucky to have received the oh-so-scarce power ingredient. Think very, very carefully what you will upgrade. At best, you will only get one or two opportunities to do this. Hope that helps.

Re Calisca again: Here's a solution. How about a mod where, if Eder gets killed killed (easy to arrange by benign neglect in the early game), the Watcher can immediately reach out and try to pull his soul back into his body. But the whole effort goes a bit side ways. Eder's corpse morphs into the Calisca toon, and the reimplanted soul is a combo of Calisca and Eder. The narrative is that souls fragment when they are released from bodies in death, but Calisca's is a strong soul, as is Eder's, and both have an "affinity" to the Watcher, so Calisca's soul is able to "fill in the gaps" of Eder's soul as it is pulled back into the corpse, but the excess energy of the TWO strong souls causes the corpse to morph. Maybe throw in a little "Does Eothas have a fragmented little hand in this" implied mystery, as well - after all, the candles are still burning. Perhaps you have to lose Gaun's Pledge in the process. Actually, you could make it a crapshoot. 50% of the time you get Eder body but his favored weapon changes to Battleaxe, and 50% of the time you get Calisca's body, wielding a sabre. Or some such. Since the hypothetical modder couldn't get the voice actress to re-do all Eder's lines, they'd probably just have to accept Eder's dialogue. Contralto enchantment. (Hmm. Somehow I feel like there should be an enchanted Torch involved in this scenario as well.) Any modder's out there want to accept the challenge?

That would be great. Perhaps we can integrate tips into a pinnable general soloing and/or efficient sequencing guide. (presuming I haven't totally moved my passions on to, or back to, some other wonderful game (Hello again, Surviving Mars.) Everyone else is invited. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Calisca and Aufra. I have no idea yet what Eder's Epilogue narrative is like (I've avoided digging into that even though I first played a major portion of the game back in v.1.0x). I do know that he is the one BFF that is with the Watcher at the start of PoE II : DF. In my mental RP, though, I often ship Eder with Aufra and child, perhaps living at the Warden's lodge at Caed Nua. I rather imagine that Calisca would rather like that. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Re: Ryona's Brestplate. From everything I have read / followed, this is outstanding gear for a monk. Per the latest in the wiki, however, it IS NOT "in the NW of the Alpine Dragon map" (neither the Longwatch Falls map, nor the Icebound Cave sub-map.) Unless the Alpine Dragon changes residences between WM I and WM II (I don't think it does.) The Brestplate is actually supposed to be in the NW of Whitestone Hollow. That surprises me a a little bit, as I have been through that area recently and didn't discover it. Darn. That is WM II content, and a tough saga to get there and collect it, and survive. You may actually have a maxed out character by the time you are able to fight through that deep. Also, you are going to want to save an ingot or two of refined Durgan steel to durganize the Brestplate and get the Recovery Time down. I tend to favor lighter armor and 0 Recovery for my (favorite class) monks, but I think I would yield on that for Ryona's Brestplate. Not that I wouldn't still be looking for ways to lower that Recovery time. For earlier in the game flow, I feel there are two ways to go with a solo monk's armor. One is to go with the heaviest armor available, switch up whenever you can, and accept the penalty to Action Speed for the protection. Monks are speedy anyway, and they quickly build up to huge impacts with Torment's reach that may make up for the reduced frequency of striking. The other way to go is to put a nice-looking set of ordinary clothes on your PC, at 0 Recovery penalty, then enchant the clothes at every opportunity. When you reach Twin Elms and/or the later Bounties, you can pick up some truly superior Robes. Another way to go on Robes is the vendor just at the gates of Stalwart, who has a great Robe (possibly my favorite) that isn't immediately obvious. But enchant it to Exceptional, on top of its existing power (Mirrored Image upon receiving Crit) and you may never need another upgrade - well, you will want to durganize it. It also has the advantage that you can probably get to it be well before you could reach the other top flight Robes, or Ryona's Breastplate. All of the above are superior to anything you can do with any monk's outfit, AND much more stylish. (You can't get a monk's outfit until pretty late anyway.)

@InsaneCommander (and other interested parties): Well, this is kinda interesting, and encouraging. I've done a review of forum discussions about sequencing, and a review of walkthroughs of all the side quests/tasks. There are very few that get cut off / failed if you have opened up subsequent Acts. This isn't exactly detailed sequencing, but rather sequencing guidelines. I concluded that not much was cut off if you wanted to just press ahead on the Main Story Line, at the rate you could survive, to get to a few of the later rewards. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Main Story quests have to be finished in each Act in order to progress to the next act, but that is fine, and expected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Act 1, before going to Defiance Bay, there do not appear to be any side quests / tasks that cannot be deferred until later, regardless of opening Act 2. However, I think it is likely you will want to complete most of them, especially if soloing, just to build xps and levels and gear. The core portion of the side quest The Smith's Shipment is pretty much right along the road(s) the PC must take from Gilded Vale to Caed Nua in pursuit of the Main Quest Line, so it might be convenient to do most of the work for that quest along the way. Eventually the PC would have to return to Gilded Vale and the Black Hammer Smithy to complete the quest, however. There is one Act 1 "Main Quest Line" quest, The Gilded Vale, that doesn't have to be completed to move along the Main Quest Line. This quest will fail (like anything else unfinished) if you eventually open Act 4 to proceed toward the final game resolution. But the quest is hard to avoid, simple to finish, and worth early xps that the PC really needs, so there is no real reason to avoid finishing it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Companion Quests. Looks like you can take on & complete the Companion Quests any time, except one. Most of them you cannot progress in until later Acts and territories are opened. A couple of them (Durance, Grieving Mother) mainly require that the Comp Char travel with the PC a lot, camp several times, and talk several times. But it doesn't seem to matter much how long you wait to work through these, other than in a couple of cases there are moderate benefits that the Comp Char may receive. The one exception is Aloth's quest, Two-Sided. This quest cannot be will fail if it is not completed before the PC attends the duc's animancy hearings. Act 2 ends immediately after that. Aloth's quest requires an interview inside Brackenbury Sanitarium, which becomes unavailable after Act 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Somewhat surprisingly to me, very few quests / tasks from the very content rich Act 2 are hampered by opening Act 3 at the end of The Hermit of Hadret House quest. A couple of quests that you might expect to become blocked are OK to return to later, because the key interaction characters return to their expected locations after a brief disappearance at the end of Act 2. Besides the previously mentioned Aloth Companion quest, the task Clandestine Cargo will fail if it is not completed before the end of Act 2. The task requires an interview with someone at Brackenbury Sanitarium as one of its steps. In addition, the available courses of action become more limited for the quest A Voice From The Past, but it can still be completed, with all final resolution results options still available. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White March sequencing. There are several threads about this, so I will just sum up. You probably don't want to take your party to WM / Stalwart area before about general character level 7. If you are soloing, probably more like about level 10+. For role play purposes, allow a little time to go by before launching into the WM II material. In the exposition dialogues upon your return to Stalwart to start WM II stuff, a multiple weeks to several months seem to have gone by since you opened Durgan's Battery. There is no WM content that will be cut off by Act 3 activities, but difficulty wise WM II stuff is a little to a WHOLE LOT tougher than WM I (other than the Alpine Dragon), so you might want the party to be around L10 to 11+ before going back, and if you are soloing you probably want to be L13 - L14 or more. Similar levels recommended for Cragholdt Bluffs. You could easily intermix some of the WM II quests with Act 3 questing. For role play purposes you probably want to finish with WM II before doing the last one or two Act 3 Main Story events (Yes, both the WM II content and the C. Bluffs have been done by skilled masochists at lower levels than suggested above, but I tend to favor more fun & less run. If you want the challenge of an earlier venture, go for it.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Act 3 & Act 4. There is one main guideline here. Finish everything you mean to do in the way of previous content, from every Act and the expansions, before you start Act 4. Once you take the plunge (somewhat literally) into Act 4, you are locked into the end game and cannot get back to any previous quests, vendors, etc. Oh, and if you aren't in ToI mode, you probably want to make an deliberate save (not just an AUTOSAVE) right before you finish Act 3. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMHO, it may be worth it, especially when soloing, to press hard down the Main Story Line as fast as your leveling and your survivability will allow to get to Twin Elms, and take on the At The Mercy Of The Tribes quest. It has a very nice permanent Talent reward that could be useful in a lot of places in the Dyrwood that you could then return to. Likewise, getting to Stalwart sooner rather than later, at least for a short visit, may be a good idea. Playing dice with the locals in the Inn can also earn you a nice minor Talent. Mind, you may lose 200-400 coppers before you get the knack of the game, and you do have to clear the ogres out of the streets to get to the Inn, but, hey, you're an adventurous sort, right?

I have done about the first 60% of the game solo, before bringing along any Companions. Enough to max the PC at 120000 xp. But not a particularly efficient run, except for the Prologue. Some tips so far: - it is possible to reach L2 before leaving the Ruins of Cilant Lis, if you really perfect play in the campsite and that small dungeon. And it really helps to be what amounts to "a level ahead" through the next couple of maps. The keys are: a) get Calisca killed off (actually killed) before going into the Ruins, while getting her to do as much damage as possible to the tribesmen, to save your PC some hits. You will probably have to have her switch out to "camp casual" clothing instead of armor to make this happen. (Note: I love Calisca. If it were possible to keep her as a Companion the whole game, I would. Totally outside realm of possibility, so best to get her killed quickly to maximize xp for the MC.) b) Keep Heodan alive to get inside the Ruin, and disarm the floor tile traps. You will probably need to have a ranged weapon in hand as you enter the Ruins to keep Heodan alive. If your MC is a Rogue, you probably won't need him; even better. You can map out the trap tiles; some are L1 (PC should be built to handle these), some are L3. Doesn't really matter, because trap experience scales directly with the number of party members, unlike Beastiary and event experience which doesn't yield quite as much per character if there are multiple characters. Don't Rest with Heodan, make him go on immediately. Go to the tiles, have Heodan remove them all, for the disarm xps. Then get Heodan killed. Letting the overly confident and acquisitive boy wander off to provoke the black oozes or the spiders works for this, but on first encounter he needs to run far enough away from their home ground that they won't hover over him when he is knocked out, prolonging the combat and preventing him from arising maimed. Its actually best if the oozes kill him with ooze spit, so they are fairly far away. Then do it again after he revives, or have him go in the other direction and die from different critters. c) After Heodan has gotten your party the L3 trap xps, and died shortly thereafter, have your PC kill/disarm/discover everything else in Cilant Lis. PC should reach L2 before the big spider, maybe before a couple spiders if you have been perfect. - Once your PC is alone, never be afraid to REST! - Collect every Summons talisman you can and USE THEM! Don't forget the potential allies in your pocket. Especially the Obsidian Lamp/Shades. - Killing stuff from long range with a melee character is cheesy. DO IT ANYWAY! Kiting is your friend. - Managing Skills. You want a little of everything, but... 5, or maybe even 4, is enough Stealth. There are ways to raise Steath on demand, and the situations are generally predictable. Raise Mechanics steadily, up to about 7 real by the middle of Defiance Bay, 8 by the end of Act 2. You can stop there, I think. You'll eventually need to be able to touch L12 to 14, but gloves, resting bonuses, boons, and (last resort, because they are precious) scrolls can get you to those levels, after you have identified / cleared to areas that require them. You will want Lore at L2 quickly, for Fan or Flames mainly; L4 sometime in Act 1; probably L6 sometime in Act 2. Due to conservation of Skill points, I'd say L8 / Level 4 scrolls is nice but fairly optional for a solo PC. Survival. Great stuff here. However, I'd say it is important to get a solo character to Survival L5, but questionable if you ever want to push beyond that. A solo character is rarely if ever flanking, so L6 is little to no benefit, and your Skill points are needed elsewhere. Athletics. Good for everyone, all the time. Dump any points that you have not used on above priorities in Athletics, whenever you can. - Do not invite / accept / move Companions to Caed Nua if you want to remain truly solo for record purposes. You will miss out on the bonus Adventures, and reward items, and character xps that idle Companions at Card Nua can take on, but you will maintain your "true solo" status. - if your don't care about "solo for record" status, STILL do NOT invite Companions into party until AT LEAST Caed Nua Great Hall, Brighthollow, and probably Barracks and East Barbican are restored. That is the earliest that they can receive missions, and as long as they have NEVER joined the party with your MC, they will receive xps equal to the current xps of the MC when they join the crew. After joining there is a formula, but basically they will get about 75% of MC xps when not in the party, + any xps from independent assigned "off camera" adventures. So they actually gain xps faster before they ever join your party, presuming you mean to invite them eventually. You may even want to consider not inviting anyone until the MC has max leveled. - And finally: Don't fight the Bear at Level 1. Or Level 2. Wait for Level 3, take the heaviest 1-shot ranged weapon you can get, buffing food, Wizards Double potions, xp potions. and at least 3 Fan of Flames Scrolls. (BTW, you can make Wizards Double potions, and Fan of Flames scrolls, with stuff you collect at Cilant Lis and in Valewood.)

Certainly intend to, if it ever becomes solid enough.

Read up on Wizard and chanter builds in the List post pinned at the top of this forum. They are for MCs, but they will help a lot with the Companions. Several different styles of fight wizards in the List. Among chanters, the selection of sample builds is not as broad, but I suspect that something like The Drake's Ambassador may serve your Kana very well. At any rate, Boeroer is one of the best character builders to frequent these forums. The insights he gives in explaining his build and answering question in the thread will help you.

Of course! Makes perfect sense.